FullTime Daydreamer
by deleteaccountpls
Summary: "I'm not crazy, I'm just a full-time dreamer.' Aurora Donald is an outcast for being different, different as in unique. Neither Joe or herself realise that they're more alike then they think. PLEASE R&R.
1. Winter to Summer

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Super 8, credit to the director, script writers, etc.**

**A's/N: So, I watched Super 8 about a week ago, and I've basically fallen in love with the film, it's so good! It's really touching as well, considering I've just experienced a loss somewhat similar to Joe's. ANYWAYS, I've been going through the Super 8 stories, they're all fantastic, and I decided to write my own! It will most likely turn out a Joe/OC, just a heads up, and I'm starting it off in the third person, I might change it to first person within the next chapters though, not sure yet. Enjoy and please tell me what you think!**

**BTW, the song that basically bases this story is 'Upside Down' by Paloma Faith, check it out, I think it suits my character well, lol. **

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><p><em>Winter of 1979<em>

The snow had been falling all night and by the time it had reached 4 o'clock pm it had set and now the small town on Lillian looked like a winter wonderland. In one of the streets a door of a house had opened and a girl walked out with her dog, it started barking loudly and run in the snow which made the girl giggle and chase after him.

She was wearing jeans, a jumper, with fury boots, a long blue coat with yellow gloves and hat and scarf to match. Her round, pale face made her cheeks and nose seem redder than they usually are, and her brown, waist-length wavy hair was starting to frizz because of the cold.

She ran after the dog till they were about 4 metres apart and slowed down to a walking pace, she rubbed her hands together and stuffed them in her pockets. Winter was her favourite season, she loved it when the snow was falling, and she watched the snow flakes fall onto her hand and laughed when it melted almost instantly. She loved admiring the icicles that formed out side her bedroom window and on trees, and gasped when they glistened, like diamonds.

Her mother hated it when she walked off in the snow, and didn't come back for hours, she hated it when she acted reckless and went to the limits. The thing she loathed most was when she dreamed aloud, and said the craziest of things, to her mothers dismay- her daughter believed anything was possible. She tried to keep her daughter inside, she wanted to keep her inside where she couldn't get hurt, where she couldn't dream, where she would be normal and where she tried to bring her back to reality, she would say that is she continued like this she'd end up like her father- dead.

But Aurora (pronounced Ah-Roar-Ah) didn't actually think her father was dead, she believed he was still here, telling her about magnificent creatures he's met, adventures he's been on, drawing and making experiments that would result in the craziest things. Her father, Xavier Donald, (pronounced EX-ay-vee-air) really was a fascinating person; he had named her Aurora after the Disney Princess widely known as Sleeping Beauty, as she was born sleeping, not crying or screaming, but sleeping peacefully- and to her father, sleeping beautifully. No, he wasn't really gone, she saw him every night, in her dreams. She had stupidly told her mother about that and she sent her to a Councillor, stating that Aurora had gone loopy, but when Aurora was asked if she thought she'd gone mad, she simply said 'I'm not crazy, I'm just a full-time dreamer.' Just like her father used to say.

The petit girl fixed her hat and admired the snow men in everyone's front yard; every house had one, all except one. The only thing the house had in their front yard was a swing, with a boy sitting on it, he seemed to be clutching some sort of necklace, but she couldn't see properly. His eyes were glistened with tears and his nose was puffy, something about him made her feel concerned, she wanted to go up to him and ask what was wrong. She stared at the boy a little longer when suddenly Amigo (the dog) started to bark and jumped into the boys front yard, Amigo ran around the swing and seemed to be enjoying himself. Aurora rolled her eyes and started to make her way the get the dog and apologise for his behaviour.

The boy looked up at the sound of her coming and his eyes widened; he didn't seem to be expecting anyone.

"Hey, sorry about Amigo, he loves the snow and goes a bit haywire when it does snow," Aurora said, smiling gently. She recognised the boy, he was the Deputy's son, and in all of her classes.

He looked up and Aurora's heart dropped at the sight of his big, brown eyes filled with tears, he looked broken. She furrowed her eyebrows together and sat on the snow in front of him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"You don't know?" his voice was shaking a bit, but Aurora could tell he was shocked.

"Should I know?"

"Everyone else does, so why not you?"

"I'm not everyone," Aurora replied, her round, green eyes darkened a bit. "I'm no-one."

He looked down into her eyes and he seemed to be confused but interested in the girl sitting cross legged on the cold, snowy ground. After about 5 minutes they were broken out of their thoughts by a commotion with two men, one of them, Aurora recognised, was the Deputy, the other was a man with blonde hair that reached his chin, Deputy Jack had arrested the man when he finally noticed his son on the swing.

"I'll be back soon, Joe," he said, he looked confused when he saw me but shook it off and drove away.

Aurora had called for her dog, got up, smiled weakly down at Joe and made her way back to her home, about 10 minutes away.

"Wait! What's your name?" Joe quickly yelled.

"You don't know?" Aurora answered, smirking a bit.

"Should I?"

"Well, I am in all of your classes," by now she was grinning. She waved and ran after Amigo, leaving the boy confused.

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><p><em>4 months later<em>

The bell rang through the school, making it clear that it was the end of the school day, and finally it was the summer holidays. By the time Aurora had finished the sentence she was on the whole class had already left; she looked up, raised an eyebrow and sighed.

"C'mon Aurora, class has been dismissed, its summer! Why aren't you running out of school and yelling with the others?" her English teacher asked her.  
>"I don't really do the sun, or summer for that matter," Aurora said sheepishly, gathering her stuff.<p>

"Really? I always thought you'd look good with a tan," the teacher said, clear honesty in her voice.

Aurora shook her head and smiled at her English teacher, she was by far her favourite, she always wore a neon pink dress with bright yellow tights, her hair in a very messy bun and dozens of clips in the shapes of trees in it, her class mates thought Miss Cloworth was crazy, maybe that's why they both got along so well.

She gave in her essay and said good bye, making her way to her bike but quickly picking up and putting in the bin a few crisp packets some students had thrown on the ground- which earned a few puzzled looks from some older girls, she was used to it by now. The words 'freak,' 'crazy' and 'fucking insane' were what the people in her class usually called her, though Aurora was always wondering what they'd come up next, maybe something original next time.

She walked her bike up to the gates before riding it home, occasionally getting off to feed the ducks in the nearby lake with the crust from her sandwiches. Summer in Lillian was always very hot, and the flowers Aurora plants in her front and back yard grow and turn out to be the wildest and loveliest things she's seen.

Once she got home she left her bike by the garage and walked in to be greeted by her dog and surprisingly, her mother.

"Mother, you're back early?" Aurora said, uncertainly.

"Yes, they let us all go home early, as we weren't getting any calls, but they might call me unexpectedly to go back up to the hospital, in case there was an emergency," she said, making a sandwich for herself and Aurora.

Daisy was a nurse at the local hospital, she working usually all day and most of the night, so neither of them saw each other often, as Aurora was always locked in her room with her sketch pad, reading books, Amigo and imagination.

"Have anything planned for today?" Daisy asked her daughter  
>"Not really, though I do feel like drawing," Aurora's eyes lit up at the thought of drawing.<p>

"So not going out with any friends? Any real people?" she had a slight edge in her tone.

Aurora looked up from her sandwich and frowned. She had no idea what her mother was talking about, and what was she trying to say, that she was a loner? An outcast?

Truthfully, Aurora knew she was all of the above, but she didn't want to admit it, it made her feel lonely, and when she was lonely, she would usually run into her fathers lab and ask him to tell her a story, but now whenever she did run into his lab, no one and nothing was there, only a small desk and table, her mother had made sure everything that belong to her late husband was thrown away or sold, she wanted any memory of him pushed to the back of her mind, but Aurora promised herself and her mother she'd think of her father every night, before she went to bed, and every morning, whilst she was having breakfast.

"I'll be with Amigo, he's real," she snapped back and climbed the stairs to her room. Her dog followed obediently and she locked the door once she was inside.

Her room was her second favourite room in the house (her favourite was the garden, if that counts as a room) she had decorated it with every single drawing or painting she's ever drawn, the walls were a light blue, and when she had turned 10 her father and herself painted their house on the wall in front of her bed, they painted the family, the car, the flowers in summer, even Amigo, and when ever she looked at it, she knew she was loved.

There was homework every where and unfinished stories that she'd written, well they weren't really stories, but detailed accounts of her dreams, each one was different every night, it was what she looked forward too when she went to bed.

She got out her sketch pad and started to draw Amigo, who was playing with a model of a football she'd done for a project once, he was chewing at it and throwing it across the room, not that she cared; it made the drawing more interesting, so for the next good 5 hours she drew everything around her, and lost her self in her daydreams.

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><p><strong>A'sN: Thank you for reading! Hopefully it didn't drag on to much? Tell me what you think! And did I do okay with writing in the third person? I don't usually do it, but if you'd like it in the first person then tell me and I'll see what I can do. :) **


	2. Train Wreck

**A's/N: Thanks so much for the reviews on the previous chapter, really appreciated! :) And to the anon that was wondering what my lose was, don't worry, you're not being nosey, basically my uncle died from a heart attack about a year ago...Not going to bore you with the details but yeah I still haven't got over it. :/ **

**ANYWAYS, on with the story, a long-ish chapter for you, enjoy and please review! **

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><p>Aurora finished writing down her dream from last night and plopped herself on her bed. Her mother had left for work about and hour ago, and now it was nearly midnight. She was planning on going to the train station to draw the scenery there, she thought it looked wonderful at night and knew there would be lots of things to draw.<p>

She looked at the clock again and decided to start packing her things, well the only thing she really needed was a few pencils and her sketch book. The time was now 11:26.

When she reached the station she left her bike by a lamp post and sat on the ground, making her self comfy and started to draw the small, wooden building in front of her, she was sitting on the left side of the building, so she heard the car coming before she saw it. Six people come out, 5 boys and 1 girl, and Aurora recognised them all, Joe, Charles, Martin, Preston, Cary and Alice. What were they doing at a train station at midnight? She thought to herself. But understood what their intentions were when Joe got out a camera and make up set. They were making a movie for the Super 8 festival.

She then realised that they had given her something to draw, she smiled a bit and started to Joe and Alice, who were standing closest to Aurora. They didn't seem to notice her and she was thankful. During the scene they were shooting Aurora was very surprised, she had never heard so much flowery language in her life, it was like every sentence Charles spoke needed a swear word. She rolled her eyes and decided to watch the scene, Alice was very good, and it looked like the movie was going to be great.

Suddenly Joe interrupted the scene and shouted loudly above the moving train.

"Guys, watch out!"

"Joe, what the hell are y-"

But before Charles could finish his sentence, a huge explosion on the train tracks made them all look and a fire flared into the sky. Aurora grabbed her back and sketch book and ran for cover, she could hear the metal train screeching and the group following her, she didn't want to look back, afraid of what she might see, so she kept on running, Amigo close behind her. Giant pieces of the train were in the air and Aurora just about managed to dodge them, she feel to her knees under a piece of steel and clutched the bracelet her father had given her when she turned 8. Amigo huddled up next to her and they watched the scene in front of them, then suddenly a loud bang made them both go flying forwards and Aurora screamed with fright. She hit the ground and felt her arm burning, and her head was in so much pain she thought she'd faint right there, Amigo barked at her and she sighed in relief, at least he wasn't hurt.

She got up slowly, grabbing her head and decided to make herself known to the group, she walked up to them and gulped then winced as her arm burned again.

"Is...Is anyone hurt?" she managed to call out.

"No...I'm okay, though I think I'm having a heart attack and I have a scrap," someone she recognised as Preston answered her, a hand to his heart.

She saw Martin puking behind him and grimaced at the sight and sound of it. Then she saw Joe standing on the tracks.

"Hey, are you okay?" he said, running up to her.

"I think so, my head hurts a lot though, I think I might faint," she said, honestly. He looked into her eyes and frowned a bit, Joe knew her...he was sure of it, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He was about to ask for her name when Cary shouted from behind them.

"Joe! Did you guys see those explosions?" Cary exclaimed. "That was unbelievable!"

"Have you guys seen Alice?" Joe asked.

"Who are you?" Charles called out. Not leaving anyone a chance to answer Joe.

Aurora cocked her head to the side; she didn't like the tone in his voice. Joe seemed to remember her now and answered him.

"Aurora Donald, she's in all our classes."

"Aurora _Donald?_ The daughter of that psychopath!" Charles shrieked.

She raised her eyebrows and went to reach for her bracelet but realised it wasn't there and her eyes widened. She ignored Joe who was defending her, but gasped and looked around frantically.

"What is it?" Joe asked.

"My bracelet! I had it on about 5 minutes ago but now its gone!" she cried.

The pair of them started to search for it, whilst Cary was shouting at Charles for 'being a dumbass jerk' and Preston was trying to calm Martin down.

Then Aurora remembered when she and Amigo were under that piece of steel and they were hit by the train, she let go of it whilst grabbing her head.

She ran to where they were and almost started crying, the whole thing was on fire. The group followed her (Alice had finally found them) and had confused looks on their faces.

"There's no way your stupid bracelet is still in tact! C'mon lets go!" Charles said.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, she jumped and ran into the blazing fire, landing on the ground with the pieces of wood around her. She heard them screaming and telling her to come out, the only thing she actually heard properly was Charles yelling 'what did I tell you! She's insane!' but she needed to find the bracelet. It's the only thing she has left of her father.

She searched a bit more and found it under a block of wood, she smiled and pulled it out, making the wood in front of her fall down and the fire roared at her.

"Oh my God! She's never gonna make it! There are explosives in there about to go off! It's gonna blow her to shit!" she heard Cary yell.

And he was right, she started gasping for breath and held back and scream. She ran and ran and found a gap where she could just about squeeze through, and just as she was running through it the whole thing exploded and she very nearly got burned alive. She held the bracelet tightly and closed her eyes.

She felt someone help her up and lay her back down on some softer grass, but Aurora was in too much pain to care.

"Where does it hurt? Your head? Your arm? Does it sting?" Joe said quickly, getting his first aid kit out, she was curious at why he had one in his bag.

"Holy- Her whole arm is burning!" Martin cried loudly, closing his eyes.

"And her head's bleeding, she's losing too much blood," Joe's voice was shaking.

He cleaned out her cuts and wrapped a bandage around her burn, earning a gasp from Aurora and many 'sorry's' from Joe. He checked to see if her head was still bleeding and sighed when he felt it had stopped, and then he slowly put a bandage around her head and smiled down at her, wearily.

"Thank you," Aurora breathed out.

"It's fine, and sorry about Charles, he likes to judge people a lot," Joe said quietly.

Joe felt like he had known Aurora for ever, but still didn't know anything about her, she made him wonder and think about her, she was different, and Joe liked it.

"If you don't mind me asking...what's so special about that bracelet?" Joe whispered to her.

"It means to me exactly what that locket your were holding means to you," she answered him.

He frowned and his mouth made an 'o' shape. Aurora knew all about how is mum died, and how his dad had run to the hospital she was in just to get the locket back, after all her mother was one of the people who tried to save Elizabeth, and when she got home that day after seeing Joe on the swing she made her mother tell her everything.

"It was your mum's?"

"My dad's."

"So...he's dead?" he said nervously, every person he's known reacts differently to death, and he had no idea what she would do.

"Yes he is...he died when I was 12."

They stayed silent for a bit whilst Joe took this information in. He wasn't alone; he had found someone who knew how he was feeling, how empty and confused he was.

"How?"

Aurora took in some air and sat up a bit.

"My dad is...was well known for his experiments and the for his love of science, one day he tested one of them on himself and it didn't turn out right- in fact it killed him in the most dreadful way, and I watched it happen, from start to finish," she told him, closing her eyes.

Joe swallowed hard and squeezed her hand which made her open her eyes.

"I'm...sorry," he managed to say.

"I'm sorry about your mother too, she really was a wonderful person," she put her hand on his shoulder.

He felt his eyes watering but surprisingly didn't feel the need to wipe them away, he knew she'd understand. Then to Aurora's shock he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her hair. She hugged him back and let him cry, she'd been through it all and even felt a bit jealous that Joe had something to talk to about it, Aurora had no-one but her books for company.

"Sorry to ruin the moment but do any of you guys know what these are?" Preston come up to us, holding a white cube.

"God, no-one cares! Look around you!" Martin yelled.

"Uh, they look like white Rubik Cubes or something," Charles thought aloud.

"I don't think that's what they are," Preston argued. "They're heavy, like they're metal or something."

Joe got up and held a hand out for Aurora, who smiled and grabbed it.

"Guy's, get up here! You can see everything from here!" Cary exclaimed.

They all followed him and stared wide eyed at the scene they just witnessed.

"According to my Uncle Seth, an accident like this is exceptionally rare," Preston spoke.

"It wasn't an accident," Joe said, no emotion in his voice.

They all looked at him with confused yet shocked expressions.

"There was a truck on the train tracks."

"Are you serious?"  
>"What- like driving on the tracks?"<p>

He didn't answer, but looked around and pointed to a blue, destroyed truck in the distance.

Of course, they all wanted to find out who was driving it, but all Aurora wanted to do is go home and sleep, she felt extremely tired and didn't know what they found so interesting.

"How could a pick up truck derail a train man, that's impossible!" one of the boys said.

"Obviously it isn't," Preston snapped.

"Oh shit," Cary said loudly.

"I know that truck," Aurora said, everyone was surprised she was still here- apart from Joe.

They got a bit closer and Alice gasped slightly.

"Oh gosh...Is that him?" Charles whispered.

"Yeah...It's him," Alice answered.

"Who is it?" Martin asked. Aurora wasn't surprised that he didn't know.

"Dr Woodward," Alice stated.

"Dr Woodward...The science guy?" Martin said.

"Biology."

"Honours biology."

"Wow...I'm not in his class," said Martin, in amazement.

"We know," Cary told him.

"Just shut up Cary," Martin snapped back at him.

Aurora couldn't help but giggle silently at their conversation.

"Remember when Old Man Woodward took your Electric Football?" Charles said to Cary.

"Yeah, he locked it in the dungeons and never gave it back."

Alice got closer and closer to the truck.

"The dungeon?" Martin asked, obviously freaked out.

"That trailer Woodward keeps in the school parking lot," Preston reassured him.

"Dr Woodward?" Alice reached out and touched his wrist, but jumped a bit as a folded piece of paper fell onto the seat.

The group walked over to her as she opened up the sheet.

"Map of the Continuous United States," Aurora read aloud.

"What's with the writing?" said Joe.

"Dates and times," Alice answered him.

"What's this line?" Charles pointed at a long, red line going through the page.

"It's a schedule for the train," Joe whispered, shocked.

Suddenly a hand ripped the sheet from Alice's hands, she screamed and they all jumped back.

"He's alive?" cried Martin in disbelief.

"Who are you?" Woodward wheezed out.

"Dr Woodward, it's me, Charles Kaznyk, from fourth period? You've been in an accident, you're gonna be okay."  
>Then he pulled out a gun, Cary told them to go back and Martin swore a few times, not really making us feel better, Aurora thought.<p>

"They will kill you. Do not speak of this, or else you...and your parents will die."

Aurora was looking out to the right and tugged on Joe's sleeve; he looked at where she was pointing and widened his eyes.

"Guys...Look," he said to the group. "We should get out of here."

By now Woodward was pointing the gun at them and shouted 'Go!' Alice screamed again and they started to run. Aurora didn't know why she was following them but they seemed to know where they were going, then she called for Amigo and felt Joe grab her hand.

The whole time they were running Martin was swearing and Charles was yelling about how crazy that was. They finally reached a car, with Alice in the driver's seat. Aurora let go of Joe's hand and looked for her bike.

"I should go, thanks for helping me out Joe," Aurora told him.

"Are you kidding? Get in the car!" Joe yelled.

"But Amigo won't fit!"

"He can go in the boot; it's not a long journey, now come on!" Alice shouted.

Aurora put Amigo in the boot (who obviously didn't want to be stuffed in there) and sat down at the back, squeezed between Preston and Martin.

During the car drive Martin couldn't stop crying, Charles was hyperventilating and Preston was shouting 'You and your parent's will die! Guys this is not good information!' Aurora had never experienced this much noise and havoc in her life.

When they finally reached Joe's street herself, Joe and Charles got out.

"Thanks for the ride, Alice," Aurora said, trying to be polite.

Alice nodded slightly and Aurora swore she could see a smile. Alice then gave one of the white Rubik Cubes to Joe and she left.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Joe asked Aurora, running to catch up with her.

Aurora blushed slightly and shook her head.  
>"No, that's fine, I'm only round the corner, and anyway, you need to get home too."<p>

"But are you sure you'll be alright, with your arm and everything?"

"Yes, Joe, good night," Aurora hugged him and ran after Amigo.

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><p><strong>A'sN: YAY, another chapter done, hope you liked it? Was it too long? Too boring? TELL MEEE. Next chapter should be up maybe by the weekend, school is starting tomorrow so yeah. Thanks for reading and please review! :) **


	3. Jealousy?

**A's/N: Chapter 3, enjoy! :) Sorry for the kind of long wait, the internet was down for quite a while, and I had a science exam on Friday, but here it is! I'll try to update soon, my mum is at home and she'll do whatever it takes to get me off my laptop, lol. REVIEW OKAY. **

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><p>After Aurora had showered and changed into her pyjamas' she lay in her bed wide awake, trying to get her head around what had just happened. She suddenly felt like she could relate to Joe, and she was positive he felt the same.<p>

Her mother wasn't going to be happy with her when she comes home to find Aurora all scratched and burned over. Though Aurora did fix them up a bit, her burn wasn't stinging as much and it had turned a brown-ish colour, she knew it would scar but it wasn't very big, it was from her elbow to the middle of her forearm.

As for her head it had stopped bleeding a while ago and was turning into a scab, the only thing that looked horrible was the amount of cuts and grazes she had on her.

She rolled over and closed her eyes, willingly letting sleep pull her into another dream.

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><p>"Aurora! Aurora, wake up!" Daisy ran into her daughter's room but stopped at the sight of her arm.<p>

"Oh my...Aurora what happened? Does your arm hurt? How did this happen?" Aurora was now awake and watching her mother fret over her like she was a 5 year old.

"It's fine...really, it doesn't hurt anymore," she said.

"If you say so, put some ice on it, and try not to get any clothes on it, okay? I'm going to be staying at the hospital all weekend, I have night shifts and don't see the point in going to and fro the house and hospital, I'll see on you Monday," she gave Aurora a hug and dashed downstairs.

Aurora was surprised at this sudden affection coming from her mother but shrugged it off, she didn't mind it. She carefully got dressed into a white blouse and high waisted shorts, and went down for breakfast.

She had no clue on what to do, so she got her bike and decided to ride around the block. She did that for about 10 minutes and was about to turn around when someone came rushing out their house and ran right into her bike, knocking them both over, and papers flying everywhere. She stood up quickly and looked right into a pair of big, brown eyes.

"Oh my God, I'm so sor- Oh, hey Aurora!" Joe said, very brightly.

"Good morning Joe, here, let me help you with that," she swiftly picked up all the papers on the ground and handed them to him.

"Thanks."

"No problem, so where were you heading with these papers?" she asked him curiously.

"Over to Charles, it's the script for the movie he's making; you might've seen us shooting a scene last night?"

"Yes, Alice is an amazing actress!" which make Joe nod in agreement.

"What're _you _doing today, then?" Joe asked her.

"Nothing...Actually it looks like today is going to be rather boring," Aurora laughed slightly.

"Hey, wanna come hang out with me and Charles?" he told her, silently praying she'd say yes.

"Well...I'm not sure Charles likes me..." she said, thinking about it.

"Don't worry about him, just ignore it, if it helps, I don't think you're crazy? In fact, I find you very interesting."

She blushed and fiddled with her hair.

"Alright then," she left her bike outside Charles' house and walked in with Joe.

The sudden noise and things going on in the living/dining room alone amazed Aurora, come to think of it Joe and his friends amazed her a lot. There were twins banging down plastic baseball bats onto the table, a small boy with dark hair eating cereal, a blond girl wearing very short shorts arguing with her mother, another girl with brown hair asking for English Muffins and finally Charles watching TV.

A large man wearing a yellow blouse passed the pair and smiled down at Joe.

"Good morning Joe and..."

"Aurora Donald, good morning Mr Kaznyk," she answered with a smile.

"Hey Joe, who's your friend?" Charles' mother yelled from the kitchen.

"Aurora Donald, she lives round the corner from us," Joe said, he was slightly surprised that no-one knew who she was.

Aurora seemed to notice but waved it off with her hand.

"Did you hear about the train crash?"

Joe shook his head slowly and said no.

"It's on the news."  
>They both sat down next to Charles and stared wide eyed at the screen. Aurora thanked God silently that Charles hadn't noticed her yet.<p>

"Can you believe this?" Charles spoke after a short silence.

"No," Joe replied, bluntly.

"It's on the news that means it's real."

"I know."  
>Aurora stayed silent and was still observing her surroundings. The house seemed lively and there always seemed to be something going on. Much different to her own.<p>

"Looks like a disaster movie, doesn't it?" Joe whispered.

Charles face seemed to brighten as he gazed at the screen.

"Oh my God...Joe that's awesome," Charles said.

Both Aurora and Joe turned to look at Charles with puzzled looks on their faces.

"What?"

"We can use it...we can film it."  
>"You want to go back?" Joe smirked.<p>

"Holy shit that's mint!" Aurora almost winced at his choice of words.

"Really?"

"You're a total brain; we gotta go get the camera fixed and the film developed from last night, I'm gonna go steal some money from my mom."  
>Aurora rolled her eyes and Joe smirked again.<p>

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><p>They were on their bikes, Charles leading it and Aurora was the rear, just before that Charles and finally noticed Aurora and was about to make a comment when Joe stopped him and told him to 'get over it, she's our friend now' which made Charles mutter '<em>your<em> friend.' But Joe's words had made her blush deeply and she pretended to tie her shoe laces to hide her red face.

"If any of the footage is useable from last night that means we need Alice to play the wife again," Charles shouted to Joe.

Aurora had to peddle a little more than she usually does just to keep up with them.

"Oh yeah...I thought she was really good," Joe said.

Aurora frowned at his words and tried to make out the feeling she had in her stomach when he talked about Alice.

"Dude she was mint but she's never gonna do it!"

"I think she will!"

"No way! You heard what she said!"  
>"Well, that was before the new scenes, right?"<p>

"Dude you honestly think she cares about the new scenes? She was totally wigged."  
>"Yeah she was we all were."<p>

Now Aurora found herself almost angry, she didn't know to whom, but she didn't like it when Joe defended Alice, and it confused her. She had nothing against Alice, she hardly knew the girl.

They finally reached the shop and Aurora quickly got out her little notepad she carried around with her, got the pencil which held her hair together out of her hair and started to draw the shop, it had lots of shapes which she loved to draw probably the most.

She saw Joe calling someone and knew that it was Alice, but because she was now drawing it distracted her from whatever she was feeling.

Then Charles turned away from the counter with an upset look on his face.

"The camera's busted man, it's over," he said.

"We can use my dad's camera; it's got-

But whoever he was calling seemed to pick up and he turned away from Charles and spoke in a hushed voice.

"Hey, Alice...its Joe Lamb."

Aurora continued to draw, ignoring Charles talking to the long haired man behind the counter, ignoring the adorable puppy that walked past her (she would usually pet it) and she even _tried_ to ignore the fact that Joe was now going to go over to Alice's house to persuade her to be in the movie, she couldn't just not listen.

"Aurora, wanna come with me to Alice's place?" Joe asked her, getting on his bike.

She didn't know what to say, either go with Joe and just stand awkwardly in the background, having that strange feeling of wanted to rip Alice's head off, or go with Charles to go get the boys and get ready for filming.

"Wait, Charles, you're going to be shooting this scene on the hill right? Over the train station?" she asked Charles, a bit nervous of what he might come out with.

"Yeah..."  
>"Oh well, in that case, I'll just meet you guys there," she jumped with joy- mentally –and watched Charles shrug, get on his bike and head over to Cary's house.<p>

"Are you sure?" Joe asked her, his brown eyes meeting her green ones.

"Yes, now go and get Alice back in the movie," she said, trying to smile.

He chuckled and rode his bike in the other direction. She got on hers and made her way to the hill, she had to admit, she was quite hurt that they didn't bother to ask her if she wanted to play Mrs Hathaway, even though she knew she couldn't act to save her life, it still hurt.

She rode her bike to the top of the hill and sat down under a tree, she suddenly wished Amigo was here with her, even though it sounded weird. After about 5 minutes of being bored and drawing the train wreck, she started to make a daisy chain, and by the time she saw the group walking up the hill it was just about long enough to go around her head as a headband.

She saw Alice get her costume on and decide to go and introduce herself, because she genuinely wanted to have a girl as a friend.

"Hello Alice, I'm Aurora, I was with you guys at the train wreck last night, and I'm in your Biology and English class, put your probably don't know that because I'm always at the back of the classroom," she said, brightly all at once.

"Hey, did you make that headband yourself?" she asked, eyeing the flowers on Aurora's head.

"Yes, just now, why, does it look bad?" she said, thinking about taking it off.

"No...Actually it looks very pretty," said Alice, smiling just a bit.

They talked for a bit more and Aurora realised that Alice liked to keep to herself that she seemed very tough at first but you needed to talk to her nicely without being bossy or telling her to do stuff to get on her good side.

"Alice! C'mon, get in position!" Charles yelled at her.

Alice rolled her eyes and made her way next to Martin. Aurora sat down on the grass where Charles and Joe were sitting and pinched the bridge of her nose at the sight of Cary being a zombie, zombie's or anything like that really weren't her favourite thing. And the sight of blood makes her hurl.

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><p>"Cut! That was mint, oh my God, with the train, so good!" Charles told them once they had finished the scene. "Joe reload the cap gun, we'll shoot at another end, Alice that was amazing, Martin you need to be a bit faster."<p>

"I'm trying man, but I'm still crying over last night," Martin answered him.

"Guys, did it really look good? My death?" Cary came running up to them.

"It was awesome," Charles replied. "Like magic."

Aurora walked over to where Joe and Alice were standing and stared blankly at the station.

"What do you think happened?" Alice asked to no-one in particular.

"You mean why he crashed the train?" Joe turned to her.

"I just got a horrible feeling," she admitted.

Suddenly Joe went up to Charles and came back with his camera and was looking at the train crash through it. Then he stood up with a confused look on his face.

"That whole thing's an air force train," he stated.

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><p><strong>A'sN: Thanks for reading; hopefully I didn't get the last bit wrong, lol. And I ended this chapter like I did because I'm kind of splitting this chapter in two parts, make sense? Please review! :)**


	4. Comfort

**A's/N: Another one up! Enjoy! Sorry for not updating soon, school got in the way and the internet got shut down for a very long time, lol. :) But here it is!**

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><p>After they had finished the scene they decided to go and have lunch, and because there was only 6 chairs and 7 of them, Aurora ended up sharing a seat with Joe, she didn't mind one bit though, in fact she found herself trying to stop herself from moving closer to him.<p>

"I make models, like plastic ones, you know glue 'em, paint 'em, stuff like that," Joe told Alice and Aurora.

"And he's not embarrassed by that," Preston piped in.

"Look who's talking, Math Camp," Cary defended Joe.

"Thanks can I have coffee please? Cream on the side," Charles told the waitress.

"He's so sophisticated," Cary said.

"Shut up I like coffee."  
>"No-one likes coffee."<br>Alice smiled widely and Aurora giggled at their argument, but the rest of the boys seemed to be used to their bickering. Aurora looked at Alice again and felt like opening her note book, she really wanted to draw her, and Alice was a very pretty girl and had lots of features on her face, perfect for drawing.

"Air force trains, even the models, have these hooks," Joe started again.

"Oh, they do! For when the trains are loaded on the transport ships!" Preston exclaimed sarcastically.

"Every car on that train had hooks, every car."  
>"Joe, stop talking about, alright?" Charles butted in.<p>

"Wait guys, am I the only one who doesn't understand any of this?" Martin asked.

"Probably, Smartin," Cary used the nickname Martin obviously loathed.

"Shut up, I don't like it when you call me that," Martin talked back.

"I'm sorry Smartin, lets just go cry about it," Cary answered him and again Aurora laughed to herself even though she could tell Martin was upset.

"Dr Woodward had that map, he drove onto the train tracks, maybe there was something he wanted to-

"Destroy, yeah!" Preston, Cary and Aurora finished of his sentence, finally understanding what he was talking about.

"Will you guys just shut up, all of you!" Charles said, but nobody listened.

"Maybe he was sick of being old and wanted to kill himself," Cary suggested, not really meaning it.

"He had a gun, why not use that?"

"Run out of bullets?"

"There are other infinite ways of committing suicide, pills, hanging..." Preston went on.

"Pussy! Stop talking the fries away!" Cary suddenly yelled at Charles.

"I ordered these for a reason!"  
>"Hey can we have another order of fries because my friend here is fat," Cary said to a waiter passing by.<p>

"Funny chompers, at least I don't have to use a booster seat."

Cary laughed at his own joke and Aurora watched Charles and Cary stared throwing fries at each other and laughed loudly with them; she had never laughed or smiled so much since her father had died and now her cheeks were starting to hurt.

"He could jump off a building," Preston thought aloud.

"Or fall down some stairs," Martin said.

"Well, that's not really affective," and Aurora had to agree with him at that one.

"If this is the air force, what would the air force have on the train...?" Alice started asking Joe.

"Jesus shut up about it! You heard what old man Woodward said we can't talk about this! Joe, seriously, do you really wanna take a chance if something could happen to your dad too?" Charles shouted.

Aurora frowned and looked over at Joe, who was staring at his unfinished pie, that was very cold of Charles, she thought, she nervously coughed and rubbed her hands together under the table.

"Charles, you can't just poke your nose around and bring other people's businesses into what you're saying and use them as examples, you really have no idea what its like to be in Joe's position right now, you're not helping either, and I'm pretty sure what you just unintelligently said hurt his feelings, I don't know you that much so I can't judge you, but all I'm saying is that you really need to think before you speak," Aurora quickly, feeling the weight lift off her shoulders as she told Charles exactly what she was thinking.

Most of them looked at her in amazement, they didn't hear her speak often, Alice gave her a thumbs up, she obviously felt the same way, and Joe have her a look full of gratitude. Charles looked speechless.

"Well...It's not like _you_ know what he's feeling either," said Charles.

"Actually, I do, I'll see you later Joe, Alice," her voice poured with venom that she never thought she had, she nodded at them and left, not even bothering to look behind her.

"Dumbass," Cary muttered under his breath, glaring at Charles.

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><p>Aurora ran into her house and into her fathers old laboratory, hoping to find him there, smiling at her and opening his arms to her for a warm hug, but when she opened the door she found nothing, she bit her lip and slid down the wall, Amigo sat down next to her and whimpered quietly, the dog could tell his owner was upset. She started running her fingers through his golden hair and sighed, she never complained, never moaned and wept at how life was unfair, but right now she couldn't stop herself, right now she needed her father, she wanted him, she knew it was selfish but she didn't seem to care, she cried and cried, occasionally shouting for her dead father, begging him to come back, she buried her head in Amigo's hair and soon enough she was asleep.<p>

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><p>Aurora woke up to Amigo licking her cheek and quickly sat up, she then remembered why she was in the laboratory and sighed. She got up and went up to the attic, climbing through the window with her sketch book and sat down on the roof, drawing the horizon, it was now around 7pm. She suddenly gasped and sighed at her stupidity, she had left her little notebook at the restaurant! She couldn't go back now, it probably was already in the bin and she was sure no-one gave a thought to take it for her.<p>

She almost started to cry again, that little book was filled with drawings she's done for the past 4 months. She drew for a bit, distracting herself from what happened today and smiled down at her drawing.

Then her head perked up at the sound of tyres crunching along rocks, she raised an eyebrow and looked down at her front yard but then felt her whole face light up when she saw Joe standing there on his bike.

"Do I have to ask what you're doing on your roof?" he asked her, a smiled playing at his lips.

"I was drawing, see?" she said innocently and climbed down the pipes, jumping down next to Joe.

"Let's take a look," Joe took the sketch book out of her hands and gawked at the sketches on the pages.

"You did these?" he asked her in shock.

"Yes, why are you acting surprised?" she folded her arms and bit her lip to stop herself from grinning.

"Oh, no I didn't mean that, that's not what I meant, it's just tha-

"Its okay, Joe," she said, smiling. "I know what you mean, so is there something you wanted?"

"Oh, yeah, when you left the restaurant today you kinda forget your notebook, so I got it for you," he pulled it out of his back pocket and handed it over with a smile.

She stared at Joe and suddenly pulled him into a rib-crushing hug, she was overwhelmed with happiness for two reasons, one that she had got her notebook back, two for the fact that Joe had thought about her and got it for her.

Joe was surprised at her sudden action but automatically responded, he closed his eyes rested his head on her shoulder.

"Thank you Joe, I actually thought it would be thrown away by now," she pulled away and pocketed the notebook safely.

"Don't worry about it, you're an amazing artist, how long have you been drawing?" asked Joe.

"Since I was about 6 really, my father had put a drawing pad in front of me and from that moment I got addicted to it," she laughed as she remembered her father telling her about it.

Joe smiled and looked down, they both started to feel a bit awkward.

"Um...Sorry about Charles today, again, and well, thanks for sticking up for me," Joe told her, still looking at his shoes.

"Its okay, someone had to tell him how cold he was being," she shrugged.

They stood there for a few minutes before Aurora realised that this was the part where she invited him inside.

"So…Want to come in? I could do with some company?" she said, looking up to Joe with a pleading expression that he really didn't know how to say 'no' too.

"Okay, but I'm blaming you if I get grounded."

She laughed and led him into her house- using the front door this time. She showed him her room, more of her drawings and they found themselves on their backs on Aurora's roof, just talking, which Joe liked. They talked about lots of random things, like your favourite colour, movie, season etc, what grades you get, what you'd like to be when you're older.

After a game of 20 questions Aurora looked to her side at Joe.

"How're you coping?" she asked.

"With what?" he replied, trying to play dumb.

She raised her eyebrows but then quickly gave him a kind look.

Joe closed his eyes, a lot of people have asked him that same question, he would answer them simply, saying he was getting there, and earn a sympathetic look which he hated. He didn't want or need anyone's sympathy.

But with Aurora it was different, if he spoke to her about it then he knew she wouldn't just hear like the others do, but she'd actually listen, and she'd understand. He looked over at her and the look in his eyes gave Aurora the answer to her question.

"You can talk to me, you know," she said softly.

"I know."

Silence fell and Aurora looked back up at the star filled sky.

"Its hard, everything's hard now, without her," he said quietly, knowing that if he spoke to loud his voice would fail him. "When she was here, I depended on her a lot, I knew I always had her to help me when I'm angry or confused, comfort me and give me advice, but now's she gone, I have to handle everything myself, and my dad isn't helping, I know he's trying too but we've never really got on well anyway."

"Have you tried talking to him?" Aurora sat up and crossed her legs beside Joe.

He shook his head and closed his eyes again.

"Then why don't you?"

"He's always busy and even if we do he won't get me like mum does, he won't know what to do or say."

Again- silence, then Aurora put her hand over Joe's (which was folded on his stomach) and squeezed it.

"It is hard Joe, no-one said it would be easy, but there're two ways of dealing with it, either sinking down and forgetting how to live _or_ moving on and actually trying to live life. When I say move on, I don't mean completely forget her, I mean letting her go, don't think about all the things you can't do now she's not here, but what's she's taught you and all those times you had together, its going to take a while, I will admit, when my father passed I was numb for about a year, I forget how be happy, I was empty and didn't see the point in being here, then I thought about my family and how they would feel if they lost me too, you have a purpose Joe, we all do, it's just finding it that's the hard part."

By this point they were both crying, Aurora took in a some air and wiped his tears away.

"It's not bad to cry either, or let it all out, you feel much better when you do, I haven't known you long but I don't think it matters, I'm always here for you if you need me Joe, you are not alone."

His bottom lip quivered, he couldn't stop himself, he pulled Aurora down and they embraced as tightly as they could, they cried and cried. It seemed to Aurora that every hug they shared was one out of comfort.

They pulled away finally and Joe looked down at his watch.

"Oh God…Its just gone 1, I've got to go, thank you, for…you know," he said.

She smiled and hugged him once more, he climbed down the pipe and got on his bike.

"See you today? Maybe?"  
>"Definitely," Aurora replied.<p>

They shared a smile then Joe rode off to his house, Aurora went back inside and washed her now sticky face.

Boy oh boy had that meeting just changed _everything._

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><p><strong>A'sN: Sorry for not updating again! But thanks for reading, a long chapter to make up for it, hope you enjoyed it and please tell me what you think! :) **


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